More states and federal officials are questioning whether digital billboards, seen by critics as dangerous distractions for drivers, ought to be regulated, The New York Times reports.
About 2,000 of the nation’s 450,000 billboards are digitized, and the industry expects that number to grow to tens of thousands. Images on digital billboards change every six to eight seconds, allowing up to six advertisers to share a single billboard. Typically placed in high traffic areas, they fetch a premium of $5,000 to $10,000 more than traditional billboards, according to The Times.
Michigan lawmakers are considering a two-year moratorium on the construction of new billboards, and Minnesota’s legislature is scheduled this month to hold hearings on a similar moratorium, according to The Times. In California, a proposed two-year ban on electronic billboards failed to pass the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee last year.
The Federal Highway Administration says it will complete a study this summer tracking whether and for how long drivers look at digital billboards. The administration has considered the subject before. From The Times:
For decades, the Federal Highway Administration has provided regulations to states governing free-standing billboards that prohibit them from having “flashing, intermittent or moving light or lights.”
But in 2007, the agency ruled that the free-standing digital billboards did not violate the rule and recommended, among other guidelines, that ads on those billboards stay in place at least four seconds and that they not be “unreasonably bright.”
Last week, the Georgetown Institute for Public Representation, a public interest law group, filed a petition with the highway administration asking it to reverse the earlier decision, which would have the effect of banning new digital billboards that include flashing, intermittent or moving lights, and requiring the dismantling of existing ones.
